People in Greece Are Not Actually Giving Themselves HIV for Welfare Money

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Conservative media, including the Daily Mail and the Drudge Report, pounced yesterday on the insane-sounding stat that said “about half” of new HIV cases in Greece are “self-inflicted” in order to obtain the country’s €700-a-month benefits, with Rush Limbaugh declaring that that’s “what the welfare state does to people.” There’s nothing like a study full of numbers to confirm one’s biases. But it turns out that this one, from the World Health Organization, was totally wrong, and was the result of a massive “editing error.”Oops.

The sentence in question read, “H.I.V. rates and heroin use have risen significantly, with about half of new H.I.V. infections being self-inflicted to enable people to receive benefits of €700 per month and faster admission on to drug substitution programmes.” It was supposed to say, “about half of infections are due to needle injection, some of which is deliberateself-infection.”

But even “a few” is dubious: The WHO report cites another study that mentions self-inflicted HIV, which itself cites another study. Actually, come to think of it, that’s probably good enough forLimbaugh.